Movie Preview
25 April 2002
Accidental Spy: Jackie wrote this letter to fans about filming naked
The Accidental Spy. Some spoilers in here:
Hi! I've never been cleaner in my whole life than in the last four
days. The reason? I've had to shoot a scene in the famous
"Turkish Bath", fighting bad guys in the bathhouse. I have to be
naked, and before every scene lather my body with soap. After days of this, I feel as fresh as a daisy from head to toe.
Fans who've never seen my naked body will be both delighted
and shocked when they see these scenes in the coming Spring
of 2001. Imagine a naked man in martial combat!
I don't find the experience particularly pleasant myself, though.
Fighting wet and naked in the bathhouse is hard, but not as
hard as keeping your balance running around on a slippery
marble floor. In one particular scene, I had to run and slide to the other side of the room. After finishing several shots, the
director thought I didn't look stressed out enough; after all, I was being chased by killers! I tried harder, and that was when
things went wrong. One! Two! Three! Action! Running as fast as I could and sliding with my leg out, I lost balance and fell back
with my leg in front of my neck. I could only think about protecting my recently injured lower back, hurt while shooting
Shanghai Noon. I saved my lower back, but the back of my head hit the marble floor hard. I lost consciousness for a few
seconds, but recovered almost instantly and sat up straight away.
Having had a lot of experience dealing with pain, I knew that if I
could tolerate it, stay awake and not faint, I would recover
quickly. Sitting on the floor with my head in my hands, I
determined to fight the pain though it really hurt. The shooting scene fell deadly silent, watching me. After five minutes, the
pain began to lessen and I shouted, "back to work!" The whole crew sprang to their feet and came to life again. It's strange!
I'm the sort of person who immerses myself in my work, forgetting pain, hunger and worries.
The story on the third day of shooting is hilarious. In the movie,
the bad guys chase me to the busiest part of Istanbul. I still
have to fight these bad guys naked, in an area with around 30
stores and 200 people. I'm the only man in Turkish history who
ran around everywhere naked for three consecutive days.
Firstly, it's very embarrassing to be naked in public. Secondly, because I was the Kung Fu choreographer, director and actor, I
had to be running about naked even when the camera wasn't
rolling. In one of the scenes, the bad guys threw me into some
spice barrels in a store. There were red, green, yellow and black spices, so I came out looking very colorful. Very funny! I
couldn't blame anyone for laughing because I design all the
action. As you know, I will never let a funny gag slip through my
fingers!
Once, I fell into a barrel of spicy powder and came out all red.
The director said the effect of the shot was great, but what he
didn't know was that it was chili powder and it makes you very
itchy. Can a naked man scratch his butt in front of 200 people? Of course not! So I distracted the director by talking to him
about the next shot, and while he and the shooting crew were busy adjusting the equipment, I secretly took a quick shower in
the washroom to wash away the spicy powder. Lesson learnt: never put spicy powder on your butt!
This week I have to continue taking good movie shots, but
when I take some time off next week, I'll tell you about some
more adventures. Talk to you later!
